The future of quarries
A significant breakthrough in process digitalisation and automation
capabilities for the aggregates sector.
What is DEQ?
Currently, quarries are missing the great opportunities of digitalisation. In fact, they use ≤1% of the data produced. Here, the biggest challenge is to connect all the quarry processes and integrate their management in real-time, to improve and optimise their operating regime.
DIGIECOQUARRY’s ambition is to tap the full potential of “Digital Quarries” through a significant breakthrough in process digitalisation and automation capabilities for the aggregates sector.
Objectives
DIGIECOQUARRY aims to design, develop and validate in 5 pilot environments an Innovative Quarrying System (IQS) comprising sensors, processes, tools and methods for data capture, processing and sharing to provide integrated digitalised, automatic and real-time process control for aggregates quarries. This will translate into:
Health & Safety and Security
Improved H&S and Security conditions for workers, avoiding their exposure to dangerous operations through automated and controlled processes.
Efficiency, Selectivity and Profitability
Improved Selectivity and Efficiency of the aggregates extractive sites, thus increasing the profitability of the quarrying processes, ensuring long-term operational sustainability and viability
Environmental Impact
Maximised Sustainability and Resource Efficiency in the quarry operations by reducing emissions, improving the management of water and fostering a sustainable supply of RM to feed new and existing value chains closing minerals loops and ensuring a long-lasting production.
Social Acceptance
Improved social acceptance through the communication with policy makers, citizens and relevant actors to get them involved in the value chain.
DIGIECOQUARRY will seek for international cooperation within the EU but also beyond, to share knowledge and best practices and improve the general perception of the quarrying industry. The novel system will be piloted in 5 EU quarries with different characteristics to demonstrate ensure representative and transferable results, with a market-oriented approach.
As a result, the project will generate positive Environmental, Social, H&S and Economic impacts related to quarries, contributing to expand and strengthen the EU aggregates industry
DIGIECOQUARRY will seek for international cooperation within the EU but also beyond, to share knowledge and best practices and improve the general perception of the quarrying industry. The novel system will be piloted in 5 EU quarries with different characteristics to demonstrate ensure representative and transferable results, with a market-oriented approach.
As a result, the project will generate positive Environmental, Social, H&S and Economic impacts related to quarries, contributing to expand and strengthen the EU aggregates industry
Concept
DIGIECOQUARRY addresses the quarry as a whole (from small up to multi-site quarries), comprising 8 processes:
This figure shows the overall collaboration logics between partners and the performance of data collection throughout the quarrying operation.
The network of IoT sensors gathers data about the machines, the materials, the environment and other important parameters on the field. Sensors’data is collected by on-the-field sub-platforms and a cloud-based main platform: the IoT smart mining platform. This interoperability platform provides the necessary interfaces to accommodate heterogenous data and offers data storage capacity (data lake) for each site. As such, the main platform enables standardised exchanges of all relevant data with the BIM and sub-platforms (the latter being implemented as a data warehouse including the AI processes and algorithms).
These sensors, sub-platforms, IOT smart platform, BIM models, AI components and services comprise the Intelligent Quarrying System (IQS).
The IQS will thus ensure that all the quarry management is optimised from a global and holistic perspective in quasi real-time, defining priorities between process interaction, leading to a decision-making support framework.
This ensures a market potential and a competitive advantage that will be gained through the pilot sites, leading to a business case which can be implemented and replicated across the EU and worldwide in the coming years.
DIGIECOQUARRY addresses the quarry as a whole
(from small up to multi-site quarries), comprising 8 processes:
- Site preparation: General Information and characterisation of the rock mass.
- Extraction: clean and safe solutions for the extraction of aggregates via drilling and blasting.
- Loading and internal transport: safe loading and transportation processes within the quarry.
- Treatment processing plant: efficient, automatic and flexible methodologies to recover aggregates, increasing the range and yields of recovered materials, while reducing environmental footprint.
- Storage: both between the quarry and the treatment plant and after the treatment process.
- External transport: optimised transportation routes outside the quarry.
- Rehabilitation: minimisation of environmental impacts in quarry restoration in terms of efficient management of internal transport from the extraction site and treatment plant to the restoration area.
- Business management: looking for optimised process control integrating large amounts of data.
Concept
DIGIECOQUARRY addresses the quarry as a whole (from small up to multi-site quarries), comprising 8 processes:
This figure shows the overall collaboration logics between partners and the performance of data collection throughout the quarrying operation.
The network of IoT sensors gathers data about the machines, the materials, the environment and other important parameters on the field. Sensors’data is collected by on-the-field sub-platforms and a cloud-based main platform: the IoT smart mining platform. This interoperability platform provides the necessary interfaces to accommodate heterogenous data and offers data storage capacity (data lake) for each site. As such, the main platform enables standardised exchanges of all relevant data with the BIM and sub-platforms (the latter being implemented as a data warehouse including the AI processes and algorithms).
These sensors, sub-platforms, IOT smart platform, BIM models, AI components and services comprise the Intelligent Quarrying System (IQS) (details in section [3] System architecture).
The IQS will thus ensure that all the quarry management is optimised from a global and holistic perspective in quasi real-time, defining priorities between process interaction, leading to a decision-making support framework.
This ensures a market potential and a competitive advantage that will be gained through the pilot sites, leading to a business case which can be implemented and replicated across the EU and worldwide in the coming years.
DIGIECOQUARRY addresses the quarry as a whole
(from small up to multi-site quarries), comprising 8 processes:
- Site preparation: General Information and characterisation of the rock mass.
- Extraction: clean and safe solutions for the extraction of aggregates via drilling and blasting.
- Loading and internal transport: safe loading and transportation processes within the quarry.
- Treatment processing plant: efficient, automatic and flexible methodologies to recover aggregates, increasing the range and yields of recovered materials, while reducing environmental footprint.
- Storage: both between the quarry and the treatment plant and after the treatment process.
- External transport: optimised transportation routes outside the quarry.
- Rehabilitation: minimisation of environmental impacts in quarry restoration in terms of efficient management of internal transport from the extraction site and treatment plant to the restoration area.
- Business management: looking for optimised process control integrating large amounts of data.
Latest news and articles
All the news and technical articles of the project.
DEQ Consortium meeting: Leoben
DigiEcoQuarry’s family met in Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria) for two days of innovation, digitalisation, mining, and camaraderie. We began by catching up on the current state of the project, reviewing both the progress made and the […]
DEQ at the Aggregates Congress in Argentina
From 23 to 25 October 2024, the IV Aggregates Congress was held in the city of Cordoba, Argentina, under the slogan: Aggregates: Mining for the infrastructure of the Argentina of the future. For three […]
DigiEcoQuarry Project Makes Significant Advances for European Health and Safety Week
As part of European Health and Safety Week, the DigiEcoQuarry project has made notable strides in implementing cutting-edge technologies to enhance working conditions in the mining sector. The project […]
DIGIECOQUARRY multidisciplinary and experienced consortium has been designed covering the whole value chain of the quarrying industry (including quarry managers, extraction methods experts, providers of quarrying assets), and innovative technology’s experts capable to add great value to the mining and quarrying sector bringing it to the forefront of the innovation, such as ICT, BIM and AI experts, smart sensing technology developers, academia) as well as other relevant stakeholders such as international associations, specialists in social innovation and policy makers capable to maximise the project impact and ensure the acceptance of DIGIECOQUARRY solutions by the market.
It is composed of 25 organisations from 8 different EU countries: 9 from Spain, 4 from Germany, 2 from France, 2 from Italy, 2 from Finland, 2 from Sweden, 1 from Austria, 1from Portugal and 2 international partners (from Colombia and from South Africa), bringing together the necessary profiles, and critical mass in terms of expertise and resources to ensure the achievement of the project goals and impacts.
DigiEcoQuarry’s Consortium
DIGIECOQUARRY multidisciplinary and experienced consortium has been designed covering the whole value chain of the quarrying industry (including quarry managers, extraction methods experts, providers of quarrying assets), and innovative technology’s experts capable to add great value to the mining and quarrying sector bringing it to the forefront of the innovation, such as ICT, BIM and AI experts, smart sensing technology developers, academia) as well as other relevant stakeholders such as international associations, specialists in social innovation and policy makers capable to maximise the project impact and ensure the acceptance of DIGIECOQUARRY solutions by the market.
It is composed of 25 organisations from 8 different EU countries: 9 from Spain, 4 from Germany, 2 from France, 2 from Italy, 2 from Finland, 2 from Sweden, 1 from Austria, 1from Portugal and 2 international partners (from Colombia and from South Africa), bringing together the necessary profiles, and critical mass in terms of expertise and resources to ensure the achievement of the project goals and impacts.
ASOCIACIÓN NACIONAL DE EMPRESARIOS FABRICANTES DE ÁRIDOS
GRANULATS VICAT
CEMEX
HOLCIM
CRONENBERGER STEININDUSTRIE FRANZ TRICHES
AGREPOR AGREGADOS – EXTRACÇÃO DE INERTES
SANDVIK MINING AND ROCK TECHNOLOGY
METSO
MAXAMCORP INTERNATIONAL
ITK ENGINEERING GMBH
MONTANUNIVERSITAET LEOBEN
CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLA
UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID
AKKODIS
ARCO ELECTRÓNICA
MA-ESTRO
DOHMEN, HERZOG & PARTNER
abaut
APP CONSULTORIA DE GESTIÓN DE PROYECTOS
SIGMA TECHNOLOGIES
DIRECCIÓN GENERAL DE MINERÍA Y ENERGÍA DEL PRINCIPADO DE ASTURIAS
ASOCIACIÓN COLOMBIANA DE PRODUCTORES DE AGREGADOS PÉTREOS
MINTEK
ZABALA INNOVATION CONSULTING
ROCTIM -AB
DIGIECOQUARRY consortium will combine the latest researched and advanced technologies applied to quarry operation together with the integration of selected innovative digital solutions to boost the capacity of the aggregates industry, to meet the 4 main challenges identified and the targets of the EIP on RM and to become leaders in environmental protection, health and safety preservation.
Coordination Team
International Advisory Board (IAB)
The project has an International Advisory Board (IAB) composed of the extractive industry’s relevant stakeholders, providing external input, guidance, and feedback.
Networking
Organisations supporting DIGIECOQUARRY:
Accademia
AGH University of Science and Technology – Mining and Geoengineering Faculty (Poland)
Environmental Network
European Network for Sustainable Quarrying and Mining
(EU-Brussels)
Entrepreneurs Organisation
Associaçao Nacional da Industria Extractiva e Transformadora (ANIET) (Portugal)
Associazione Nazionale Estrattori Produttori Lapidei ed Affini – ANEPLA (Italy)
Committee for European Construction Equipment – CECE (EU-Brussels)
Confederación Española de Asociaciones de Fabricantes de Productos de Construcción – CEPCO (Spain)
Confederación Española de Industrias Extractivas de Rocas y Minerales Industriales – COMINROC (Spain)
Confederación Española de las Industrias de las Materias Primas Minerales – PRIMIGEA (Spain)
Confederación Nacional de Empresarios de la Minería y Metalurgia – CONFEDEM (Spain)
EuroGypsum (EU-Brussels)
European Asphalt Pavement Association – EAPA (EU-Brussels)
European Cement Association – CEMBUREAU (EU-Brussels)
Fachverband der Stein- und keramischen Industrie Österreich – FVSK (Austria)
Federación Iberoamericana de Productores de Áridos (FIPA) (Ibero-América)
Gremi d’Àrids de Catalunya (Spain)
Spanish Aggregates Federation – FdA (Spain)
Union Nationale des Producteurs de Granulats – UNPG (France)
Environmental NGO
BIRDLIFE International (EU-Brussels)
Fundación Tormes – E.B. (Spain)
Policy Maker
Dirección General de Industria, Energía y Minas de la Comunidad de Madrid (Spain)
European Environment Agency (EU-Denmark)
Instituto Geológico y Minero de España – IGME (Spain)
Ministry of Mines and Energy (Colombia)
Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Spain)
Technological Centre
Centro Tecnológico del Mármol, Piedra y Materiales (Spain)
Laboratorio Oficial Madariaga – LOM (Spain)
Networking
Organisations supporting DIGIECOQUARRY:
Accademia
AGH University of Science and Technology – Mining and Geoengineering Faculty (Poland)
Environmental Network
European Network for Sustainable Quarrying and Mining
(EU-Brussels)
Entrepreneurs Organisation
Associaçao Nacional da Industria Extractiva e Transformadora (ANIET) (Portugal)
Associazione Nazionale Estrattori Produttori Lapidei ed Affini – ANEPLA (Italy)
Committee for European Construction Equipment – CECE (EU-Brussels)
Confederación Española de Asociaciones de Fabricantes de Productos de Construcción – CEPCO (Spain)
Confederación Española de Industrias Extractivas de Rocas y Minerales Industriales – COMINROC (Spain)
Confederación Española de las Industrias de las Materias Primas Minerales – PRIMIGEA (Spain)
Confederación Nacional de Empresarios de la Minería y Metalurgia – CONFEDEM (Spain)
EuroGypsum (EU-Brussels)
European Asphalt Pavement Association – EAPA (EU-Brussels)
European Cement Association – CEMBUREAU (EU-Brussels)
Fachverband der Stein- und keramischen Industrie Österreich – FVSK (Austria)
Federación Iberoamericana de Productores de Áridos (FIPA) (Ibero-América)
Gremi d’Àrids de Catalunya (Spain)
Spanish Aggregates Federation – FdA (Spain)
Union Nationale des Producteurs de Granulats – UNPG (France)
Environmental NGO
BIRDLIFE International (EU-Brussels)
Fundación Tormes – E.B. (Spain)
Policy Maker
Dirección General de Industria, Energía y Minas de la Comunidad de Madrid (Spain)
European Environment Agency (EU-Denmark)
Instituto Geológico y Minero de España – IGME (Spain)
Ministry of Mines and Energy (Colombia)
Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Spain)
Technological Centre
Centro Tecnológico del Mármol, Piedra y Materiales (Spain)
Laboratorio Oficial Madariaga – LOM (Spain)